Ella had only had ten minutes alone with the tablet. Ten minutes! She had been completely transfixed by the brightness and colors of its loading screen, before it had been unceremoniously yanked from her grasp. At first she thought it had been Brian. Elle was already prepared to bite him if necessary, but it hadn’t been him at all. It was Mrs. Hernandez.
“I’m sorry, Ella, but we think this might be unsafe for you.”
“No, it’s mine!” Her words sounded a lot more like “Mr. Mime!” but her reaching hands made it perfectly clear she wasn’t giving it up without a fight. It wasn’t fair! It was hers! What did they think it was going to do, blow up?
She sat in stunned disbelief as she watched Mrs. Hernandez set it into a drawer in her desk. Ella was crushed. Her mood kept cycling from anger, to sadness, before finally settling on a slim ray of hope when Kaylee suggested maybe she just couldn’t have it at school.
“Maybe it would make the other kids jealous or something. They’ll probably give it to Heather once school’s over.” Kaylee had said once Ella had filled her in. Ella’s mood lifted considerably after hearing this. It made sense. Maybe they thought Kaylee would accidentally throw it at her and that’s why they thought it was unsafe for her. She looked at the clock. Just four more hours until she got it back. She had almost been able to calm herself down and focus on her work when something completely unexpected happened.
There was a knock on the classroom door and in walked two police officers. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gaped at them. The room fell silent. Ella looked on with interest. Were they having some kind of presentation? Oh! Did they bring their dog with them? She had seen cops with dogs before.
She looked around eagerly as they talked quietly with Mrs. Hernandez by the door. She was a little disappointed when she peeked through the gap in their legs and didn’t see a dog, but any presentation was better than doing word problems in math.
“I hope they taze someone.” Kaylee whispered. “I hope it’s Brian.”
“Kaylee!” Jasmine admonished.
“What? He’ll live!” Jasmine just shook her head and got up to see what was going on. The four of them whispered amongst themselves. They now seemed to be asking Jasmine a lot of questions.
“Hey, since you don’t talk, does that mean you have, like, super hearing?” Kaylee asked. Ella raised an eyebrow and gave her a puzzled look. “What? I heard if someone loses a sense, their other ones get stronger. Like if you were blind or something…” Ella just gave her another puzzled look and shook her head. The only thing “super” being partially mute got her was super annoyed.
There was a heavy air of disappointment when Mr. Hernandez pointed down the hall and the cops turned around and left.
“Bummer.” Kaylee said. “I thought something interesting might happen.” Ella was about to agree with her, but then Mrs. Hernandez spoke.
“Ella, could you pack up your stuff and come with us? Your mom’s waiting for us in the conference room.”
Ella felt her mouth go dry. She could hear the excited chatter around her. Was she the reason the cops were here? Her fears were confirmed when Mrs. Hernandez reached into her desk and pulled out the white tablet.
Ella had a silent conversation with Kaylee that consisted of wide eyes, shoulder shrugs and shakes of the head. Once she was all packed, she gave Kaylee another fearful look before following Mrs. Hernandez and Jasmine out the door, around the corner and into a conference room. There seated at the table was Heather and the two police officers from earlier.
By the time they let Ella leave, her hand was cramping from the amount of writing they had made her do. They had so many questions that never seemed to stop. Who was the man in the video camera? Why was he leaving her gifts? Did she know he was in town?
She wrote all her answers down as best she could on a piece of paper. Yes, she knew him from soccer, and no, she didn’t know he was in town. Why was he leaving her expensive gifts? Because it was her birthday?
Then the questions took a different turn. Had he ever touched her? Yes. Had he kissed her? Yes. Where? On the lips. Was she standing, sitting, or laying down? Laying down. Was she clothed or naked? Naked. Did he touch her other places? Yes. Did he touch her chest? Yes. Did he touch her anywhere lower? Yes. Where? He had bandaged her ankle when she had sprained it during a match. Had he touched her any other times? Yes, he had given her hugs before. Did he touch her butt when giving her hugs? No, why would he touch her butt?
The questions just kept going and going. Heather had grabbed her hand under the table and given it a squeeze.
“You’re so brave.” Heather had said. Ella didn’t feel brave. She only felt confused.
They started asking her questions about the night her mother died.
Was he there that night? Yes. Was she sure? Yes. Was he touching her that night? Yes. Is that when he kissed her and touched her chest? Yes. Was he being gentle or rough? Rough. Did she see a gun? No. Did she have guns in the house? She didn’t know. Did she hear a gunshot? No. What was the last thing she remembered her mother doing? Giving her a bath. What time was that? A little after 10 pm, she had gotten sick on herself. Was it possible he had given her something to make her sick? No, she was always sick around that time. Why? Chemo. Was he in the room with her when she was getting a bath? No. Was he there earlier that night or had he just shown up? She couldn’t remember.
There were many questions she couldn’t answer, like exact times, dates, names. They wanted information from her on an event her brain wouldn’t even let her have access to. She was the one who wanted answers about that night! They should go ask him! They informed her they were doing just that.
“Is he cooperating? Has he admitted what he did to her?” Heather asked.
“As soon as the night in question was brought up, he shut down and demanded a lawyer. Questioning will resume later this evening. This is why we need your daughter’s statement. If we can’t charge him with a crime within 48 hours we have no choice but to let him go.” One of the officers said.
“Let him go? So he can go out and assault other children!? He took advantage of a very sick
Eight year old! Not only did he follow her out here, but look at what he left her! He’s still grooming her.” Heather showed him the tablet. “I googled what this is! This isn’t some cheap knock off, this is a Wacom Cintiq! It goes for nearly $700 on Amazon! How isn’t that proof enough? Do you think soccer coaches just go around leaving $700 gifts to old teammates?”
“We’d actually like to take a log that in as evidence. If he is stalking her, there’s a chance he bought this for the purpose of spying on her. There are ways to tap into a camera on an electronic device remotely.”
They began asking more questions, things like what she did online and if she had given anyone she didn’t know her new address. Ella shook her head. She wasn’t allowed on-line. Heather and the officers continued to talk while they made Ella fill out a written statement of everything she remembered. It had felt like hours before they seemed content with what information they had collected.
Ella nursed her cramped hand while they packed all of her signed statements into a folder. She was even willing to attempt verbal communication if it meant not picking up another pencil for the rest of her life.
“I want to be there.” said Ella. It came out a garbled mess. The officers looked at each other as if to ask Did you catch that, before looking to the others for clarification.
“Absolutely not!” Heather nearly shouted. “You are not getting within ten miles of him let alone ten feet.”
Ella felt frustrated. They had put her through all that, and Heather wasn’t going to let her go. She had so many questions that needed answers!
“We don’t think that would be a very good idea.” The female officer looked at Ella and gave her a sympathetic smile. “We want to keep you safe. That’s our number one priority.” She then looked up at Heather. “We do have an idea if you want to hear it.”